Every girl's dream is to get robbed of the last two months of her freshmen year of college just so she can come home to be confined to her family. She goes from developing real connections with professors to help accelerate her career, to muting herself in her online zoom lecture so that cute guy in Intro Biology won't hear her chewing her morning toast. She goes from Saturday nights out at trendy college bars to Saturday night game night with her parents. She makes the large leap from being surrounded by constant stimulation while living in the dorm, with a new friend to make behind each door, to building more doors to block out her increasingly aggravating brother.
All these shifts are not inherently bad, like being able to spend more time (and more and more and more time) with family. In fact, a lot has been gained from this experience that I certainly do not want to override with negativity, but we will get to that later.
The phrase "everything in moderation" has never felt so applicable. Ranging from how many cookies to make in your at-home version of The Great British Baking Show to how many episodes is a healthy(ish) number to binge, this public motto has now become my private mantra. Although my self-control has a tendency to fly out the coop as soon as chocolate is involved, I do think moderation is the key to staying sane in our new crazy reality. {And, no, I do not just mean in the kitchen. I am not your girl for that department.}
The deterioration of our mental health in the past few weeks is contingent on three factors. The obvious one: oblivion. This death-threatening pandemic cloud looming over our inevitable confusion certainly causes colossal global anxiety.
The next: missing face-to-face interaction.
I really do think that there will be benefits to this ugly, awful thing we are going through. And no, I don't just mean the vague benefits found on half the world's Instagram stories: "WE WILL GET THROUGH THIS TOGETHER AND BE STRONGER BECAUSE OF IT". Sure, that's inherently the point I'm getting at, but I've specifically been pondering over our use of technology. Now, if you know me, you know that bashing on our current state of technology is kind of my thing. All of the medical, forensic, and biological advancements are groundbreakingly awesome, don't get me wrong, but why do each of us walk around with a mini-computer glued to our hands all day long? We are addicts in need of that constant high, the high secured through screen gratification.
In relation to our current coronavirus era, though, we've truly reaped all the benefits of these computers; being able to stay in contact with the people who make life matter has been an enormous blessing. However, for the first time, something truly remarkable has occurred: people are getting bored. Yes, bored in general, but specifically of their devices. Although the cause of this is innately negative, I see a positive light ahead. People are literally craving face-to-face human interaction again, which is a craving we have been absent from for far too long. Prior to this pandemic, we had left parties with our best friends to go home and watch TV; we'd spend all day swiping through our social media in bed instead of getting lunch with Grandma.
When we come out of this, my hope is that people see the importance of this face-to-face interaction once again; it has a way of nourishing us that no food, exercise, or entertaining Tik Tok can do. People are physically built for other people. This focus on putting the phones away during our post-corona get-togethers may be fleeting, but I'll let the hope of a lasting de-emphasis on technology get me through these next few weeks (months?).
And finally, the third factor essentially deteriorating our state of well-being has less to do with boredom, and more to do with living life in excess. AKA: the opposite of moderation.
Because we suddenly have ample time on our hands, we feel like there is literally nothing to do. However, what is overlooked is that most of us still have the same number of responsibilities: Working from home as a professional or as a student, keeping your body healthy with high-quality meals and exercise, being a leader in something you are passionate about, and being a friend. Although the medium that many of these tasks take place upon may have shifted, the purpose remains the same. If we followed a cookie-cutter approach for how to live life in quarantine, productivity theoretically should remain constant.
Yet why do we feel so unproductive?
All of our distractions are being used in excess. We've lost motivation to strive to be our best selves, using the excuse that the four walls of our homes hinder us from growing. The TV and microwave give us an instant gratification that writing an essay just can't. Hours of mindless activities go by until we set the alarm the next morning, hoping we'll randomly surprise ourselves and actually try a little harder. We are being distracted in excess.
Let's face it: you're bad at living in moderation. We all are; it's a hard skill to master. However, the world is giving us an incubation period where we can work on ourselves. There will always be a million distractions holding you back from reaching productivity. Quarantine season is the time to intentionally change your ways. If you live life in moderation now, denying hours of instantly gratifying activities, you will experience long-term gratitude. Far more rewarding.
To reach full circle: Yes, I am still sad about coming home early college; who wouldn't be? However, I spent the first week or two sulking in my misery, and that certainly didn't do me any good. This is the reality, and it's a personal choice to either remain stagnant in distress or grow in adversity.
If you put a new lens on life, there can be a lot to learn in online lectures, a lot of joy in those Saturday family game nights, and a lot of love in staying up all night laughing with the sibling you are so lucky to have. Sure, your home desk might not be your interactive classroom, your family room may not be your trendy bar, and your bedroom may not be your lively dorm, but those all come in moderation, too.
I've learned to love those things a lot more on this break, hence I conclude that moderation teaches appreciation.
Elbow tap to that.
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